幹細胞研究と治療のジャーナル

概要

Disposable No Longer: The Spleen Holds a Reservoir of Stem Cells

Denise L Faustman, Claudia Giesecke, Miriam Davis, Willem M Kühtreiber, Simon D Tran, Thomas Dörner and Eric J Ley

Regenerative medicine is coming to recognize the value of a stem cell population that is unique to the spleen. This splenic stem cell population can robustly facilitate adult end organ regeneration and it expresses a key embryonic transcription factor, Hox11, which regulates organogenesis in diverse vertebrate species. This review article discusses the identification of this Hox11 stem cell population for its therapeutic potential in the pancreas, salivary glands, heart, bone and cranial neurons for organ regeneration. It also discusses the deleterious effects of Hox11 stem cells in cancer, in which malignant cells revert to a Hox11 phenotype, and in certain forms of autoimmunity, in which Hox11 lineages of cells may contribute to abnormal development of end organs.